Abstract: Effective diet-based interventions targeting youth at risk for developing hypertension (HTN) require understanding adolescent meal patterns and their relation to HTN. The purpose of this research was to determine usual meal patterns of African American adolescents and how these vary by gender and HTN risk status. Specific aims
were: develop a method to visually represent meal patterns; describe differences in meal patterns between participants of differing genders and HTN risk categories; and explore relationships between meal patterns and systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and body mass index (BMI). Fifty-eight African Americans (ages 17-20, 30F) at either high- (n=29) or low-risk (n=29) of developing HTN were interviewed about their week-day eating and activities. The Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ) was used to estimate intake of select foods and
nutrients associated with blood pressure (BP). Height, weight, and BP were measured. A daily timeline for each participant was constructed capturing typical food choices, eating times and locations, and activities. These Meal Pattern Timelines (MPT) were used to compare proportions of healthful, moderately healthful, unhealthful, and skipped meals, snacks, and beverages across groups. Meal patterns were identified and each participant categorized as either reporting a meal pattern or not. Meal patterns related to DHQ
measures (p<0.05) were selected for principal components/factor analysis. Step-wise regression models related the final factor solution to SBP, DBP, and BMI. Overall, low-risk participants consumed fewer unhealthful dinners, snacks, and
beverages than high-risk groups. Twenty meal patterns identified from the MPTs provided a six-factor solution (Healthy Dinner, Healthy Lunch, Unhealthy Snacks, Skipped Breakfast, Unhealthy Beverages, Healthy Snacks). SBP increased with higher factor scores for Unhealthy Snacks and Unhealthy Beverages and lower scores for Healthy Lunch and Skipped Breakfast (p=0.03,R2=0.18). BMI increased with lower
scores for Healthy Dinner and Skipped Breakfast (p=0.05,R2=0.10). Unhealthy Beverages and Unhealthy Snacks trended toward a positive association with DBP (p=0.07,R2=0.09). The MPT technique was able to identify and distinguish the meal patterns of different groups of African American adolescents. This novel approach can be further developed for nutrition assessment and counseling as well as for future dietary intervention with African American adolescents.